- Video explains how Elderly Instruments in Old Town Lansing got started and what you can expect to see when you walk through the doors.
- Elderly Instruments is a second-generation family-owned business.
- The music store buys, sells, trades, and consigns new, used, and vintage musical instruments, specifically ones with frets and strings.
- They also have a fully staffed repair shop and appraisal team.
- Elderly Instruments was named America's Top Small Businessfor 2023 Commerce.
- For more information, click here.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
"Music is a universal language. We've heard that phrase before, and we really believe it," said CEO Lillian Werbin.
On a typical day, you’ll find the sound of strings dancing around inside of Elderly Instruments.
Lillian Werbin is the CEO of the family-owned music store.
It opened in 1972 in the basement of a building in East Lansing.
"My dad and his partner at the time started the store with a love for collecting and trading instruments," Werbin.
"I know they didn't have a calculator the first day they started, and they maybe sold a pick," Werbin said.
Today, the store is very successful and has grown into so much more, with roughly 36,000 square feet of instruments.
"We buy, sell, trade, and consign new, used, and vintage musical instruments, specifically ones with frets and strings," Werbin said.
Guitars, mandolins, and banjos, to name a few.
And they even have instruments that are unique.
Like the harp guitar.
"It really can act as like almost a full band all on its own. So, it's a very complex instrument," said salesperson Benjamin Nielsen.
The store even has an instrument that is truly one of a kind and has a price tag of $198,000.
"This is a 1963 Gibson Explorer. It's an instrument that never existed," said sales supervisor Bruce Ignatowski.
"Amazing in every way, the way it looks, plays, sounds, feels, one of a kind," Ignatowski said.
But the store has plenty of affordable instruments.
"These guitars here start for about $200," Ignatowski said.
Elderly Instruments was named America's Top Small Business for 2023 Commerce.
”To be named number one feels really, really good," Werbin said.
"Music will prevail past 50 more years. And so there will certainly be a need, and we'll hope to fill it," Werbin said.
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